WHAT’S ON THE WORKBENCH AT THE MOMENT

I’ve moved a Lionel 3494 from the “to do” to the bench. The mechanism is in very good shape, trucks, wheels and metal frame are rust free. The silver paint and the side ribs are reasonable for being an 80 year old toy. My question regards the manner Lionel secured the shell to the frame. 4 1/4 in small screws through the bottom into molded plastic mounts on the inside corners of the shell.  Over time the bottom portions of these mounting “studs” have broken away. The shell now simply rests in place on the metal frame, snug enough to run, but not secure.  Any thoughts about rebuilding the missing plastic mounts?

thanks, Richard

Getting small bottles of hobby paints properly mixed has always been one of my problems (I'm quite lazy).   Some (actually most) of my paints will sit undisturbed for months at a time then when I get around to using them my wrist/elbow gets a work out which is not good on my old body parts.  The time these bottles sit in my paint box doesn't even take into consideration how long the paint was on the shelf at the local hobby shops.  So a few days ago after a long and unsatisfactory shaking session I decided to invest in an automatic shaker.   I started shopping, reading reviews and gave up after a few hours and went to bed.   Later that night I woke up and said, "hmmmm".

Next day I opened Tinkercad and created this rough version of a bottle holder sized to fit  Vallejo .57 oz AV paints. The ends were made with the idea of keeping the cap on in case it came loose, also provided a slot to hold a velcro strap.

I printed it, attached it to an old blade for my reciprocating saw, and gave it whirl.  Yay, easily mixed paint.  I did discover the metal in these saw

blades is extremely tough to drill, but with the help of a hammer and punch,  I managed.

Since it worked quite well I've gone on to print another for holding my Microlux 2oz bottles.   Perhaps I can rig something up for full size spray paint cans too.

-Mike in NC,

For spray cans, I know that they sell cups that you drop the can into and then chuck into a drill and spin it.

Mike in NC, that’s great creativity!

For anyone who doesn’t want to build there own paint shaker/mixer, I highly recommend this one from Micro-Mark.

It is definitely one of my favorite, most-used (and inexpensive!) small tools.  Absolutely love it!

@Mike in NC posted:

Getting small bottles of hobby paints properly mixed has always been one of my problems (I'm quite lazy).   Some (actually most) of my paints will sit undisturbed for months at a time then when I get around to using them my wrist/elbow gets a work out which is not good on my old body parts.  The time these bottles sit in my paint box doesn't even take into consideration how long the paint was on the shelf at the local hobby shops.  So a few days ago after a long and unsatisfactory shaking session I decided to invest in an automatic shaker.   I started shopping, reading reviews and gave up after a few hours and went to bed.   Later that night I woke up and said, "hmmmm".

Next day I opened Tinkercad and created this rough version of a bottle holder sized to fit  Vallejo .57 oz AV paints. The ends were made with the idea of keeping the cap on in case it came loose, also provided a slot to hold a velcro strap.

I printed it, attached it to an old blade for my reciprocating saw, and gave it whirl.  Yay, easily mixed paint.  I did discover the metal in these saw

blades is extremely tough to drill, but with the help of a hammer and punch,  I managed.

Since it worked quite well I've gone on to print another for holding my Microlux 2oz bottles.   Perhaps I can rig something up for full size spray paint cans too.

-Mike in NC,

That's pure genius right there!

@SIRT posted:

Steve , please stick with O guage.

It does look like a great area for Z gauge though.

Dallas, several thousand items have been created on that bench in 20 years. I plan on getting out of the closet, LOL!

Since the weathering business keeps me quite busy, I will be setting up a new commercial shop in Fl.

Great things in the plans for 2023!

Nice jig!

@SIRT posted:

Was that a work bench? Never mind I found the answer on this page.

@CNJ #1601 posted:

Mike in NC, that’s great creativity!

For anyone who doesn’t want to build there own paint shaker/mixer, I highly recommend this one from Micro-Mark.

It is definitely one of my favorite, most-used (and inexpensive!) small tools.  Absolutely love it!

Your local hardware or big-box store has paint mixing bits for your drill for a few bucks.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Your local hardware or big-box store has paint mixing bits for your drill for a few bucks.

I did try that but found a full-size drill (or driver) to be way too much "machine" for a typical one or two-ounce bottle of hobby paint.  The Micro-Mark mixer is small and operates with much more finesse (yet really gets the job done!) in a small bottle.  Maybe there's a scaled-down mixing bit made for a small hobby drill?

@coach joe posted:

Was that a work bench? Never mind I found the answer on this page.

                    These are the guys who really do all the weathering...

@SIRT posted:

Never underestimate what one can do in the limited space of a closet.

Check this out: Two layouts in an unexpected space (warrenvillerailroad.com)

@Lionelski posted:

Never underestimate what one can do in the limited space of a closet.

Check this out: Two layouts in an unexpected space (warrenvillerailroad.com)

I'm also combining the other two work areas all in one area.

@SIRT posted:

                    These are the guys who really do all the weathering...

That's awesome, Steve! 

@Mike in NC posted:

Getting small bottles of hobby paints properly mixed has always been one of my problems (I'm quite lazy).   Some (actually most) of my paints will sit undisturbed for months at a time then when I get around to using them my wrist/elbow gets a work out which is not good on my old body parts.  The time these bottles sit in my paint box doesn't even take into consideration how long the paint was on the shelf at the local hobby shops.  So a few days ago after a long and unsatisfactory shaking session I decided to invest in an automatic shaker.

-Mike in NC,

Stir it first to get everything on bottom broken up then shake. Takes a minute or two. I use an old Testors paint brush and for stirring and it works great.

@SIRT posted:

I'm also combining the other two work areas all in one area.

Love the "adult beverage conveyance device"
I'm amazed by the work that came out of that little closet. Can't imagine what can be done in a proper shop.

Bob

Plans are in place. Just have to close next week and get back down to the new home. Everything's packed up for the movers. I'm kind of in limbo for awhile. Challenger is being transported this week.

My latest command upgrade project, the K-Line Speeder.  The mission was to give it command and sound, that was a tight fit!  All lighting is LED.  I used the ERR Mini-Commander 2 and RailSounds Commander.  I was surprised my 1" speaker was way louder than I expected.  My only remaining task is to find some suitable seats for my engineers.  Good thing it has command control since there isn't anyone driving!

I can't paint nearly this good, so I got Tom @Krieglok to actually paint the shell.  My painting wouldn't look like this.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

My latest command upgrade project, the K-Line Speeder.  The mission was to give it command and sound, that was a tight fit!  All lighting is LED.  I used the ERR Mini-Commander 2 and RailSounds Commander.  I was surprised my 1" speaker was way louder than I expected.  My only remaining task is to find some suitable seats for my engineers.  Good thing it has command control since there isn't anyone driving!

Sounds great John. I want to add sound to the TMCC speeder I just bought. I haven't opened it up yet to see what space is available. I'll be in touch when it hits the shop.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Sounds great John. I want to add sound to the TMCC speeder I just bought. I haven't opened it up yet to see what space is available. I'll be in touch when it hits the shop.

It'll be tight, but it might be possible.  That one is a box, so there's actually more room than the K-Line speeder.  I had to hack the rear electronics bay and enlarge it, that's why it needed to be painted.  I just use Styrene sheets to build a larger cavity behind the cab.

@SIRT posted:

Dallas, several thousand items have been created on that bench in 20 years. I plan on getting out of the closet, LOL!

Since the weathering business keeps me quite busy, I will be setting up a new commercial shop in Fl.

Great things in the plans for 2023!

Good to see you getting out of the closet Steve. LOL

Good to hear about great things from someone for a change Steve.  2023 soungs great.  Good luck.

( It would have been too claustrophobic for me to be  trying to work in that small closet )

Congratulations on the plans for the new place in Florida, Steve!

John, that's a great job on the speeder installation!

Thanks Mark. I won't miss the long winter months anymore.

Can't wait to get started on some new projects!

@Mark Boyce posted:

John, that's a great job on the speeder installation!

Thanks, I wanted one of these with sound, so I decided to take another look.   I do hope I don't have to take the boards out anytime soon, they're really stuffed in there!

Another eBay bargain, this one had a broken belt that drives the dispatcher back and forth. Note to self, check to see if parts are available before purchasing MTH items - this belt was not. I was able to purchase a timing belt with the same tooth pitch and count. Just had to drill a hole through one of the tiny teeth to push a pin through to drive the dispatcher. Found the worlds tinyest drill bit, said a few Hail Mary’s and bingo - it works. Tomorrow morning I am hoping to go to Lowe’s and get the plywood to start the layout.

Another Fort Worth & Denver Rwy. TEXAS ZEPHYR car.

Something different. This Howe truss bridge had its start half a world away 22 years ago.  I've had the three trusses for this project since 2000. The builder who started to make them decided instead to build a steel car float set up instead.

It's a bit short, as prototypes are usually 100' or more in length.  This is where the workbench project stands as of yesterday.  It's 15 1/2" long, and when set up for two tracks is about 8" wide.  While not as super detailed as the one SIRT Steve showed us last month, it's quite recognizable as to what it is. Besides having a lot of wooden parts, it also has a substantial amount of detailed metal work to be done on it.   

More materials are needed, including myriads of nut bolt washer sets and embossed metal work.  More underside transverse beams are to be installed. Then will come rails, spikes, frogs, car float alignment toggles and two tie-up winches that were hand powered with geared steel ship's wheels, which I still need to find or make. Then some decking and signage.

That dowel rod in the last photo is for the land-end rocker upon which that end of the bridge sits in trunnion bearings below, on a supporting bulkhead. This enables the bridge to rise and fall at its water end with the tide and be at a height about the same as a car float deck. The water end is supported by a pontoon still to come. The final colors and finish are still a way off in the distance.

S. Islander

Fort Worth & Denver Rwy.  RPO Silver Messenger. This one will get the prototypical BURLINGTON across its letterboard.  

K4 Decals did a first class job on a decal set for the TEXAS ZEPHYR.

Some of you will find what I'm about to say to be very amusing. That is certainly my intent.

I used to have a work bench in my basement. Before I expanded my layout, I even had a vice and a band saw on that work bench.

I no longer have a work bench.

Do you wonder what happened to it?

This is where my work bench in my basement used to be:

LOL, Arnold

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Some of you will find what I'm about to say to be very amusing. That is certainly my intent.

I used to have a work bench in my basement. Before I expanded my layout, I even had a vice and a band saw on that work bench.

I no longer have a work bench.

Do you wonder what happened to it?

This is where my work bench in my basement used to be:

LOL, Arnold

Arnold, I never get tired of seeing your baseball park. It's great that you were able to fit it into your layout no matter it's past life. And I'm a Yankee fan.

Dave, I greatly appreciate your compliment and your love of baseball and the Yankees.

It is very easy to put a ball park on a layout. All you need is Woodland Scenics Green Blended Turf for the grass and Iron Oxide Fine Ballast for the reddish brown dirt on the field, a little chicken wire and cardboard for the fencing, Popsicle Sticks and wood glue for the bleachers and stands, and acrylic paint.

The trickiest thing is getting good O Gauge players and umpires. I got lucky and got nice metal figures from Kramer Products, which is no longer in business. I believe Scenic express has some nice plastic figures that look like old time players from the 1900 - 1910 era with mustaches, and that are less expensive than the Kraner Products figures were. Arnold

I bought this milk car in a 3 car lot on eBay a few years ago. It just had my curiosity as to how it was made. Not much info was offered. It appeared 90% done. Well it was 2 rail but based on a Lionel milk car chassis. In the prototype world. The butterdish Bordens cars were originally like the Lionel cars. The wood sheathed bodies were removed and what looks like a butterdish was formed out of metal to cover the tanks. Still not sure how the Lionel body was removed as it had I’m guessing to be cut on a bandsaw. I ended up switching out the trucks to 3 rail and re doing the coupler mount to get the coupler height correct. But I noticed the brake rigging was redone when I was in there. I remember reading somewhere the Lionel rigging wasn’t correct. The body is carved out of balsa wood. This car was really nicely done. Someone spent some time on this. So close to being finished. I’m guessing the way it was sold it was part of an estate. I have to add the hand rail that circles the body. I made a jig to drill the stanction holes. Lionel has silver boiler front ones that look to be close to what I need. I do have a brass version to go by. Seeing I have extra black decals from the brass one that’s painted white.  I’ll paint this one silver. This scheme was around in the 40’s.

I have been modifying some MTH 19th Century freight cars. Mainly adding a longer brake wheel stems and period brake wheels…

I stripped and repainted this car from a MTH commemorative car to a Lehigh Valley scheme.

I added the brake stems and wheels to these two stock MTH cars. Then a light wash and some dry brush weathering…

Here is the same WM car in a black and white format…as they didn’t have color film in those days…lol.

Tom

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Dave, I greatly appreciate your compliment and your love of baseball and the Yankees.

It is very easy to put a ballpark on a layout. All you need is Woodland Scenics Green Blended Turf for the grass and Iron Oxide Fine Ballast for the reddish-brown dirt on the field, a little chicken wire and cardboard for the fencing, Popsicle Sticks and wood glue for the bleachers and stands, and acrylic paint.

The trickiest thing is getting good O Gauge players and umpires. I got lucky and got nice metal figures from Kramer Products, which is no longer in business. I believe Scenic express has some nice plastic figures that look like old time players from the 1900 - 1910 era with mustaches, and that are less expensive than the Kraner Products figures were. Arnold

Maybe next layout Arnold. It's been on my feature list the last few but never made it.

Tom, nice job on the 19th century cars. I built a Mainline Models 36 ft. Stock Car and placed it on a Atlas 36ft. Reefer chassis with truss rods. The chassis was a board width to long and had to be sanded back for the body to sit on. I have a couple of more kits to do. Could you give me a rough measurement of the chassis length for these cars. It’s tough to find the Atlas cars and these look like they could work. I run Kadee’s. Is there a mounting setup in place ?

@Dave_C posted:

Tom, nice job on the 19th century cars. I built a Mainline Models 36 ft. Stock Car and placed it on a Atlas 36ft. Reefer chassis with truss rods. The chassis was a board width to long and had to be sanded back for the body to sit on. I have a couple of more kits to do. Could you give me a rough measurement of the chassis length for these cars. It’s tough to find the Atlas cars and these look like they could work. I run Kadee’s. Is there a mounting setup in place ?

Hi Dave.

I took some measurements from the MTH 19th century car frames. The boxcar, gondolas and tank cars all have the same frame. Here are the measurements. I used metric as I could get a more precise reading…

The frame length is 210 mm ( or 21 cm)

Frame width is 53 mm

From truck enter pin to truck center pin is 155mm

Most of the cars I checked, have the pads for KD couplers. Some do not, but the space is there for mounting them. I think the older cars do not have the mounting pads, but I cannot say for sure what year they changed the design…

hope this helps…

Tom

@Dave_C posted:

Tom, nice job on the 19th century cars. I built a Mainline Models 36 ft. Stock Car and placed it on a Atlas 36ft. Reefer chassis with truss rods. The chassis was a board width to long and had to be sanded back for the body to sit on. I have a couple of more kits to do. Could you give me a rough measurement of the chassis length for these cars. It’s tough to find the Atlas cars and these look like they could work. I run Kadee’s. Is there a mounting setup in place ?

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 I’m flabbergasted, standing besides myself, jaw on the floor, covered in metal shavings, …..is that board by board built??……oh my goodness!…..that trumps anything I’ve built, ……I’m turning in my tools, …..I stand in awe of the masters, …….well done Dave!…

Pat

Thanks for the measurements Tom. I’ll have to look into these. I built the first kit pretty much by the instructions. Not a bad build. Just a lot of measuring and squaring everything up. I model the Rutland. All their cars have truss rods. Not impossible to model but I had an Atlas chassis with them. I figured I’d give it a shot on the second one and make sort of a hybrid. They always ran at the head end of the train. I figured the added heft of the Atlas chassis would be a good thing. I did have to remove one board out of the floor of the chassis at each end to get the body to fit. This pushed the trucks more towards the car ends but it looks okay. I never gave the MTH cars much of a look. The Atlas cars can be found. But you have to find the less desirable ones to make it worthwhile. I still have 2 more builds. I’ll look into the MTH cars. Thanks again.

Pat, you just have to get over the shock when you first open the box and stare at all the little pieces of wood.  The sides came partially built. Otherwise. I may have never even got started. You just move along slowly and just keep everything square.

The milk car I posted previously on. Is going for a road test. I ordered some stanctions for the handrail and I need to research the silver color.

Dave, beautiful work. Very clean and precise. Like Pat said, we are not worthy! Lol

I am curious how a car will look with a MTH under frame. One detail I see on your finished stock car is the turnbuckles on the truss rods. I was considering adding those to my MTH cars. I haven’t been able to find them commercially made, so I may try scratch building some…

Tom